Thursday, March 31, 2005

I love this! To be honest, though, I would have been mightily disappointed to see people just doing homework, too. I want hot gay sex, damnit!!!

There's one stupid comment: "...LGBT people aren't defined by their sexuality." um, honey, think about what you just said. To de-acronymize, you just said that GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDERED people aren't defined by who they like to boink! I understand the sentiment, but it's wrong. As a group, we are defined by our sexuality. Sex certainly isn't all that we are, but it's the reason that so many disparate people are corralled into "the gay community." (Often, who we like to do the nasty with is just about all we have common.) The speaker should have said something like "LGBT are like everyone else; sex is only one part of who we are and what we do." And I know that's really what the speaker meant, but they didn't word it correctly.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

From a pure design standpoint, Frank's site is marvelous! As to content, I can't give an informed opinion, since I haven't really dug into it yet, but it's definitely a pretty, pretty site! I recommend checking it out simply for aesthetic pleasure. (Plus, us Franks have to stick together!)

Monday, March 28, 2005

The ever-delicious Hunter celebrates his 25th birthday today, so Happy Birthday! to him. Because it is better to give than to receive (a sentiment I think Hunter is a particular proponent of), however, he has given us a picture of his new haircut as a present. It's so shiny! His boyfriend, Damon, (yet another hottie with a new 'do) must love to pet it; I bet it's as soft as puppy hair!

Saturday, March 26, 2005

A really interesting reevaluation of Charlotte Bronte. You can almost feel the heat of the writer's passion from across cyberspace. I think she makes a good point about the disjunction between the Bronte cult-image and the real woman. But even if the "real Charlotte" was "a filthy bitch, grandmother of chick-lit, and friend," I still can't quite fall into a swoon over Jane Eyre. Just too long and too... I don't know, too something for me.(Link via Bookslut.)

Friday, March 25, 2005

I'd really like to spruce up the template of this blog, make it stand out a little more from the crowd. It's a bit dull at the moment. I have no HTML knowledge, though, so I don't want to go screwing around with things. Plus, besides a vague desire to make it spiffy, I don't really know what I want to actually do with it. Ahhh, the glamours of blogging...

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

You ever get assigned to read something for a class but, because you just can't stand the book and/or you don't have time, you don't bother? I usually do this about once a semester and I've noticed something: it really DOES affects your enjoyment of a particular class if you don't read the book. There's less of an interest or understanding of the class discussion, so you disengage from it, which makes sitting in a small room for two-and-a-half hours really, really dull, even if you normally find that class interesting. Just an observation.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Do you think Jane Austen realized what a boon she gave to future writers with one of the best (and most readily paraphrased) opening lines in the history of English literature? Or do you think she's making like a dead dervish at some of the groan-inducing imitations?

Monday, March 21, 2005

Like many people, I tend to sing in the shower. My repertoire includes the theme to Goldfinger, the theme to Diamonds Are Forever, several songs from the movie Clue, a blues song I know only from a car commercial, Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Anyone want to head over to my house for a command performance?

Sunday, March 13, 2005

I just started Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler for my frame tales seminar. I'm only about ten pages in, so I don't know what I think of it yet. It starts out with a trip to a bookstore, something I can definitely relate to, so I'm optimistic. Of the few pages I've read thus far, Calvino devotes several to the different types of books that cry out to you as you're browsing a bookstore. Since I'm a bookworm and a bookstore whore and I totally relate to this list, I just have to share. (Note: the bulleting is mine, not Calvino's.)

Books You Haven't Read

Books You Needn't Read

Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading

Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written

Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered

Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First

Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered

Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback

Books You Can Borrow From Somebody

Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too

Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages

Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success

Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment

Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case

Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer

Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves

Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified

Books Read Long Ago Which It's Now Time To Reread

Books You've Always Pretended To Have Read And Now It's Time To Sit Down And Really Read Them

New Books Whose Author Or Subject Appeals To You

New Books By Authors Or On Subjects Not New (for you or in general)

New Books By Authors Or On Subjects Completely Unknown (at least to you)

Cephalogenic is a new blog by a fellow language nut. He knows EVERYTHING (or so it seems). I hope to be just like him when I grow up.

Vividblurry provides a link to blog cliches. Looking over the list, I realize I've committed several of these sins. But, as the author points out, just about every blog in existence has as well, so I don't feel all that bad. I'm sure I'll sin again, too.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Found out on Thursday that, in addition to the scholarship I'm receiving, I'm also getting a medallion. At my school, they are the highest awards you can get. Each major and some clubs give them to individuals of high achievement. Mine is from Word Nerds, a club I belong to, for "editorial excellence." Basically, I'm getting an award for being the anal retentive nerd I am. *LOL* It's a great honor. I was hoping I would get a medallion, but I knew I wouldn't get it for English, so it was a big surprise. My sister got one, so it's also gratifying in a sibling rivalry sort of way.

Don't ask, don't tell??? These guys are screaming it! I'm sure all involved had a "dishonorable discharge"! (I've got a million of them, folks!)

(Story and links via Towleroad and PageSixSixSix. BTW, PageSixSixSix's server kinda blew up after the proprietor appeared on TV, so if you love incredibly bitchy celebrity gossip [and don't we all?], do your part to keep him out of bankruptcy. It's a really good site.)You know, I know a guy from high school who goes to West Point. The couple times I've seen him since then, I've begged for stories of homosexual conduct, but he always denied they happened. I just didn't believe him. I've seen the [porn] movies, I know what goes on! But maybe I just had the wrong military academy!

Friday, March 11, 2005

Blogger seemst to be having a little trouble with comments. I've noticed that every site I visit that's on Blogger won't let you comment. Strange. Hopefully, it'll be fixed soon. I just know how much you're all dying to tell me how much of a genius I am!

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

This totally would have been me in a former life. In medieval times, monks were the only ones with access to a lot of books, so I would almost have had no choice but to become one. Also, a community of all males? I'm there!

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

The new Harry Potter cover isrevealed!!! Little on the bilious side, I think.

Funnily enough, I'm not really into the whole Potter-mania thing. Quite surprising, considering my love of fantasy. I've only read two of the books and enjoyed them, but I'm not jonesin' for the next one or anything.

The Fametracker boards will cease to exist in about a week. I'm quite distraught about this. Over the past few months, I've grown quite attached/addicted to those forums. Where else could you talk about celebrity "endowments" (we ain't talkin' charity here!) and the vagaries of English language usage with just a click. *sigh*

Sunday, March 06, 2005

lots of us want to write books, but a lot fewer of us actually read them. I, too, would love to be a published author, but I'd be quite content to be nothing more than a "mere" reader for the rest of my life. I mean someone has to read all the books people are writing!

The Tim and Roma Show from NakedSword.com is a wonderfully funny and entertaing look inside the gay porn industry, hosted by a the president of NakedSword (a salt-and-pepper, Anderson Cooper type) and a drag queen named Roma! They have interviews and gossip and all kinds of stuff. It's very well edited and put together, as well. I really highly recommend it.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Came home today to find a letter from my university saying that I have received a memorial scholarship awarded to an English major at my school who "exemplifies [name of the professor the scholarship is in honor of]'s audacity, originality and enthusiasm."

I'm happy and honored to have received an award (which includes a small monetary scholarship and an invitation to an awards banquet). It's very unexpected. I just wish I knew how and why I got it. I mean, the sentence I quoted doesn't really say anything. (And the "audacity" thing makes me kinda giggle, 'cause that's me, Mr. Audacity himself!) I suppose I'll find out at this banquet thing.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

I am a big, fat, obese, gigantic, gargantuan, titanic nerd! I started working on that 20 page paper I mentioned yesterday and I'm actually excited about it! I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really need help.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Not that it's particularly unusual, but not a lot is going on with me these days. School continues on, snow falls every week, and my life stays pretty much the same.

My mother went to a psychic the other week. What she said in regards to me was that I was going to teach, either high school or college, and that I'm surrounded by women. I kinda expect that I'll end up a professor, so the former prediction isn't terribly shocking. The latter is totally true, but isn't really what I wanted to hear! I need some men around me! *LOL*

Two papers, one twenty pages and one eight pages, yawn before me. I've started research, but I've got to get cracking on writing.

I have a new show to watch on Tuesdays, courtesy of BBC America. It's called Boiling Point and it's about this high-profile chef in London named Gordon Ramsay. He's apparently brilliant as a chef, but isn't always the most... pleasant of people, especially to staff. It's very entertaining to watch.

I've been corresponding with the books section editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Frank Wilson, for, gosh, over a year now at least. He's a very articulate, educated, and all-around nice individual. He now has a blog called Books, Inq (wow, I only just got the pun!) you might want to take a look at.